It Seems Too Soon

There has been a lot of twittering, lately, of a back-to-school nature, over here. If anyone is feeling a bit lost, as though you missed something important, we were feeling the same way, just five days ago.

Friday morning, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and while I was there I couldn't help but see all the school supplies. On a whim, I decided to pick up a supply list for our elementary school, just to see what they were asking from the Pre-K kids. We had been debating for some time whether we wanted to send Elena to school this year with the Pre-Ks, possibly start Kindergarten early, or just wait until the rest of the kids started Kinder, next year. As I walked around HEB, supply list in hand, solutions to every possible hangup we had kept popping into my head. "It'll be really good for you to be back on a school schedule," I told myself. "Remember how nice it was to have the days and years divided up in such a predictable way? And it's really not that hard to pack a lunch for her. It doesn't have to be fancy, just healthy." On and on, the thoughts raced around my head. The school is on the way home, and as I drove past, I noticed that there were a lot of people out front. I caught a glimpse of the announcements sign, and it said "Meet the teacher 8/21 11:00-12:00." It was 10:45, and they were about to start. I hurried home, put the groceries away, gathered the family, and we went to go talk to someone about what the Pre-K program is like. An hour later I was feeling so overwhealmed. All the things I remember from Kindergarten--bristle blocks, cut & paste, painting, crayon rubbings--are now in Pre-K. Kindergarten starts 1st Grade stuff in December, with four hours of language comprehension every morning. There isn't much art, and they want your child to have basic reading skills. We picked up an application for Pre-K on our way out, but were still trying to figure out what we were going to do. Oh, and class started in just three days.

After a lot of discussion and prayer, we decided to go ahead and turn in the application first thing Monday morning. After all, we had been thinking about getting her into Kindergarten early, and Pre-K is the new Kinder, so it works out to about the same. Saturday, we got our supplies. We talked to Elena about school rules, and what to expect. My Visiting Teaching companion teaches Pre-K at another school and filled me in on everything I wish I'd known three months ago but didn't know how to find. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and this was certainly weird enough...

So, today is her very first day of school. The Pre-K kids do a staggered start (a third of the kids go for a half day for each of the first three days, then all of them do a half day Thursday, a full day Friday, and take a break for the weekend before going full time for the rest of forever), and they put her in the third group so that she'd have time for us to get her ready. She looked so much older in her new clothes (7, at least), and yet so young with her bright shining eyes and Hello Kitty backpack. When it was time to go, she hopped up and shouted "I get to go learn!" Daddy held her hand as we walked the three blocks to school. We took her to the gym, got a picture of her with her teacher. And then she was gone. The final moment between her time with us and her time off in the world was so brief (and a bit anti-climactic) that I can hardly believe it.



Now it's just me and the boys. It's strangely quiet in the house. I'd always known Elena was the instigator, but it's still weird to see it played out in front of me like this. I live in a whole new world of schedules and responsibilities. I can't wait for her to get home so I can dive into her folder and figure out what the heck is going on.